Baseball is finally back. After a long wait, MLB fans geared up to watch Opening Day action on Thursday afternoon.
Unfortunately, MLB TV had other ideas.
Numerous users reported issues with the MLB.TV and the MLB app on social media. A "Network Error" message prompted them to check their connection and try again.
Fans were naturally furious about the service malfunctioning on the first full day of the season.
"Almost didn't renew my MLB.tv subscription this year. Now, I wish I hadn't," Craig Choate said. "As if it wasn't hard enough for people to watch baseball already, now their app doesn't even work. ON OPENING DAY."
"I don't consider myself a complainer, but MLB TV not functioning on Opening Day is hardly ideal," Michael Baron wrote.
"MLB TV not working during literally their most important day of the year is so classic MLB," a fan said. "Charging $150/year and then not providing a working product/service is quite the racket!"
"Kind of ridiculous that on #OpeningDay the MLB app crashes and you can’t watch a game," former catcher and current FOX broadcaster A.J. Pierzynski said.
"MLB wants to grow its audience. It keeps making stupid changes. Here's an idea: Have an app and MLB TV work, especially on Opening Day," Mary Elizabeth wrote.
As long as MLB TV stays down, subscribers are missing plenty of Opening Day intrigue.
Pauk Skenes, Zack Wheeler, Chris Sale, and a returning Sandy Alcantara are on the mound Thursday afternoon. Juan Soto is making his New York Mets debut, and Mike Trout is playing his first major league game in nearly 11 months.
MLB TV has already drawn considerable ire for blacking out regional games, preventing fans without cable from signing up to watch their favorite local team. Viewers are also annoyed by Apple and Roku exclusively streaming matchups throughout the season.
Hopefully MLB figures out the otages soon. Fans won't be happy about paying $149.99 a year for a service that doesn't work on the first day of availability.
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